by E. M. Moore
As soon as I walked into the next room, I understood right away it was Liam’s. It was neat, tidy, with a multiple monitor computer crowded together on the desk. I wiggled the mouse and a lock screen popped up. For a guy like Liam, I didn’t think his password would be ‘password’, so I didn’t even attempt to break into it. Opening his closet, everything was neat inside, hung and arranged orderly with even his shoes lining the floor. His bookbag sat in his desk chair. I opened it and scanned through the textbooks before zipping it back up after finding nothing of importance.
As I walked from his room, a sudden wave of wrong swamped me. What I was doing felt like an intrusion on friends. I shoved the feeling aside, pushing it down, and then further away as it reared its ugly head again when I walked into the remaining bedroom. This room screamed quintessential ‘guy’. Bed not made, old clothes strewn over the desk chair, beanies on the floor. A closed laptop laid on his desk as if he’d just taken it out of his bag and placed it there. I didn’t even bother turning it on, recognizing where my skills were lacking. On his desk lay a worksheet, a name clearly spelled across the top, Travis Shaw.
And now I had all their names. Randy, Liam, Gabe, and Travis.
A wave crashed into me. It was hard not to feel that level of completeness that tried to fill me. It was something I’d been severely lacking ever since Granny had passed away.
I paused as my nose caught on a scent. I breathed in deep, inhaling the smell. Cinnamon. Like Dentyne, spicy and sweet. It was all over the place inside this room. Even worse toward the closet. My hand reached out for the handle when a furious knock came on the front door. I stood up straight, freezing right where I stood.
“Randy!” A voice called out. “Can we come in?”
“Yeah, there’s no other place to fucking sleep, Dude.”
I slipped back into the hallway and stopped just outside Randy’s room. Shit. I’d hoped to have left by now, but I’d spent too much time having fun with Randy. If I was going to be anywhere in the apartment, it should in his room because I’d come here with him. How could I have gotten myself in this mess? Maybe I could play the part of Walk of Shame College Chick and excuse myself when they all came in…
The door handle jiggled, and a voice called out, “We’re coming in! Don’t mind us, we’re just tired as fuck and need sleep.”
I took one last look behind me into Randy’s room. His chest still rose steadily up and down. Their voices hadn’t even woken him. I shook my head at the barrage of images that had overwhelmed me from my premonition and put on my best embarrassed face as I walked back into the main room. There was a small kitchen to my left, but the rest of it was all living room, a wide open space with enough couches and arm chairs for a slew of people. The apartment took up the whole downstairs while the other door on the porch must’ve led to an upstairs apartment.
I entered the room as if I was tiptoeing. Liam held his hand up to stop a laughing Gabe from saying something. He blinked at me, and I smiled back. “Um, I was just leaving.”
“Randy done already, Love?” Gabe quipped.
A wave of embarrassment flushed my skin. If we’d gone through what was in my premonition, we’d still be passed out on one another unable to move. Talk about intense.
He winked. “You didn’t kill the birthday boy, did you?”
“No,” I said, stumbling over the corner of the couch. I grimaced as I caught my foot in the carpet and tripped. “He’s just sleeping.”
Liam rushed forward, his hands outstretched. I righted myself on my own, and he stepped back and turned away before I could even thank him with a smile.
Travis snickered, saying something I was sure was less than favorable toward Randy under his breath. Gabe rolled his eyes.
“What’s that?” I asked, my hackles rising. Sure, I didn’t know Randy well enough to come to his defense, but Travis just looked pissy all the time. I didn’t even think I’d seen him smile once in all my spying on them.
“Nothing to concern yourself with,” he jabbed back. “You’re leaving, right?” He moved out of the way of the door and gestured toward it with his hands.
I narrowed my eyes, and he gave me a similar look back. Gabe bumped his shoulder. “Chill, Mate.” Turning back toward me, he gave an apologetic look before asking, “You leaving then? Will Randy be okay with this?”
I lifted my shoulders, pretending to be coy. With all of them staring at me though, my feet felt cemented right where I’d tripped. Besides, two of them were between me and the door. The almost normal curl of belonging started threading its way through my limbs again. Inside my head, I was screaming, wanting to know who the hell they all were, but my body didn’t care. My magic wouldn’t bring me here for no reason though. I’d known that when I left New Orleans, and it was the only reason I’d even attempted to figure out what was going on. For all outward appearances, these guys seemed like three regular college students with one other older friend who didn’t conform to anyone or anything. Hardly anything to go on about that.
I ran a hand over my hair, making sure everything was still tucked in its place. “I don’t really know what Randy wants, but um, I should probably go. You guys are all tired, and um, I am too.”
“Do you need a ride?” Liam asked.
“Shit,” Travis said. “What do you want? Randy’s seconds?”
Liam’s face flamed. “I just—”
“Don’t even bother answering that,” Gabe said, putting his hand on Liam’s shoulder. “What Travis means to say is that we’re all gentleman here. We can give you a ride back to your place if you need.”
Still keeping my eyes on Travis, I answered Gabe. “Thank you, but no. I only live a couple blocks from here.” Hey, they didn’t need to know that it was just a motel room, not student housing or anything. “I’ll be fine.”
Travis and Gabe easily moved out of the way as I made for the door. Liam still looked unsure. He hesitated before finally taking a step back. Before I took another one though, thuds came from the hall. I spun just in time to see Randy there in all his bare-chested gloriousness. I swallowed, remembering what delicious things he could do with his body. When he stepped into a circle with the rest of us though, I nearly lost my shit.
An audible buzz sounded in the air until quick pops of shattering glass broke it. Around us, lights blew, the light bulbs bursting and falling to the floor. The hair on my arms stood at attention, and I doubled over with the pain in my side.
Several curses flew from the guys. Travis, the first to back out of the circle, released the pressure built up around us all. Everything went back to normal as if nothing had taken place. My body didn’t hurt, there was no electric current, no more light bulbs bursting, there was just us, all staring at one another.
“Hey, Norah, you okay?” Strong hands lifted me by the shoulders, and I hid my face as long as possible. How was I going to explain that? I hated when things like this happened. Raw, exposed, it felt as if everyone could see right through me. Not that it mattered because I hadn’t planned on staying anyway, but these guys, who I’d been so drawn to, had just witnessed me in all my freaky glory.
Before I could even attempt to explain, Liam quickly said, “That kind of stuff happens here all the time. Old house.”
“Yeah,” Gabe agreed. “The wiring is just awful. We should probably call maintenance about it again.”
They all nodded, glancing up at the broken lights and then down at the shards of glass on the floor. Their excuses didn’t necessarily sound off, they sounded all too familiar. I’d thought of and spouted the same old shit before. Always blamed the sudden currents of electricity on old wiring or static electricity. I eyed them warily, my brain working on overdrive. Maybe it didn’t make sense that my magic would bring me to four regular guys, but it might bring me to four special ones. “What’s going on?” I hedged.
Travis sighed. “I know Randy’s physique is possibly overwhelming your senses, but it’s just an old fucking house.”
&nb
sp; “Jesus, Trav,” Randy spat. “Give her a break.”
“What?” he snapped. “You just fucked her, it’s not like you’re going to marry her or anything. With your reputation, it’s highly unlikely we’ll even be seeing her again so who the fuck cares?”
Randy stood tall, his shoulders straightening as he faced his friend. He forgot about me for a moment and I was able to stand back from him. They seemed to have come to an unspoken compromise when Travis shrugged and Randy relaxed, if only minutely. They may have put the issue to bed for now, but I doubted it was completely over.
My head pounded. Several smells infiltrated my nostrils, not the least was my own, that sweet smell of sugar. Among that was others. Maple. That was Randy. Cinnamon. I wanted to roll my eyes, but that was Travis through and through. The others I couldn’t quite pinpoint, but they were there, and they were all intermingling. I’d been around enough magical shit to know now these dudes were, in fact, witches. All magic had an aroma, and I usually never paid much attention to scent unless I was around someone else like me. I’d originally wondered if that’s why I’d gotten the pull here. Salem was known for its witchy history, but I didn’t get any of the usual signs alerting me to magic and I’d been pretty close to them at the bar. The only thing I felt was that instant tug in my gut toward them. It was possible they didn’t feel me either if that was the case. They were different from me, but the same. Somehow. Don’t ask me how, and since Granny died, I didn’t have anyone to even ask.
The fuck… I stood there, shaking my head. Stupid excuses, magic smell, and a pull towards these guys. For some reason, my magic wanted me to find these guys, now I just needed to figure out why.
“Alright,” I said finally, standing to my full height and placing my hands on my hips. “Let’s drop the bullshit. If that was old house wiring, I’m Oprah fucking Winfrey.”
The guys glanced at one another and then promptly looked back at me without giving anything away.
“Your witches,” I continued, smiling at their feigned innocence. “Congratulations, me too. Now can one of you tell me why the hell I’ve been straight PMS’ing for six months with the urge—no, the demand—to come here, right to your doorstep?”
Gabe rubbed the stubble at his chin. “Well, shit.”
Yeah, I wanted to say. No kidding.
Chapter Four
Liam
Norah? The fifth?
We’d been waiting on the fifth ever since… I turned to Travis to see his reaction. He was already shaking his head. It was evident he didn’t believe it. I could already see the complete mask of denial overshadowing all his other features. Ever since he’d stripped Jax, our last coven member, and accidentally took every last power away from his sister, he hadn’t been the same. Not that we could blame him. We all thought the trip to reconcile with Jennie would do him good and in some ways, it did. In others, he was far worse off.
Glancing at Randy, I nearly rolled my eyes. I wished to hell he’d zip his pants back up. We had a possible fifth in front of us. This was huge.
A whole new wave of problems hit me after understanding what unzipped pants implicated. If she was the fifth, a wicked ‘if’ I might add, he’d already involved himself with her. Shit. That took the idea of coven to a whole new level. It was hard for Travis to deal with Jax and his sister being together, but this would be even worse. A couple within the coven? It was unheard of.
I shook my head, telling myself to accept the facts as they came.
Norah’s sweet voice broke into my thoughts. “The fifth? What the hell are you guys even saying?”
“Don’t even bother,” Travis said, dismissing her question outright and turning toward the rest of us. “She’s not the fifth. If you guys haven’t noticed, she’s a chick. She’s got boobs and—”
“A vagina?” she declared, daring him to look at her. “I hadn’t pegged you guys for chauvinists.”
At that she looked at me. My face burned under her scrutiny.
Norah was striking. Her skin a soft brown, it was practically flawless. She was short. Well, at least compared to us, but within such a slight frame came a big personality. Her smile was absolutely breathtaking and her wild hair made her look almost feral. I stumbled over my words, as per usual, and grumbled at myself. “We’re not chauvinists.”
“I am,” Travis said, clearly not trying to give her a good first impression.
I gave him a look. “Fine. He is, but we’re not. Not trying to be, anyway. What’s this feeling you got? You said it was like, um, menstrual cramps?”
Randy chuckled at my description, but I ignored him. Norah eyed me up and down. “Yeah,” she said cautiously. “Like a pull in my lower stomach.” She put her hand over her abdomen and kept it there.
I blew out a breath. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that the fifth could be a girl, it just hadn’t happened before. Had it? My fingers itched to get to the Order books that were hidden in my room, and the even bigger inventory in our secret headquarters located deep in Salem woods.
Gabe looked at me and all I could do was shrug.
“Well, since apparently none of you are willing to tell me anything, I guess I’ll just be going back to New Orleans then. Thanks for nothing. Glad I made the trek here just to meet a bunch of male witches too full of themselves to even fill in someone of their own kind.”
Travis walked to the front door and held it open. “See ya.”
“Seriously?” I asked, giving him a look. Before Norah could squeeze past us, I grabbed her hand. The same surge of electricity I’d felt when I shook her hand back at Nan’s tingled my fingertips. I didn’t know why I hadn’t put two and two together before. Maybe it was because we knew all the other real witches in Salem, but this girl was legit. And she smelled sweet, like powdered sugar. “Stop. Norah? That’s your name, right?” She pulled out of my grip and continued toward the still open doorway. I glanced at the other guys. “Even if she’s not the fifth, she’s still one of us.”
Surprisingly, Randy didn’t move to stop her, which was unlike him. He looked threatening, but any girl he involved himself with figured out he was a teddy bear dressed like a biker. Since they’d…you know, what was his problem?
Finally, Gabe stepped up and threw his arm around her. “We’re being so rude. Don’t leave yet. You threw us all off, that’s all. You want something to drink?”
When Norah visibly relaxed into Gabe’s arms, Travis sighed and closed the door, sending it careening into place.
“Thank you. That sounds lovely,” she said, glaring at Travis the entire time.
While Gabe took her into the kitchen, I walked up to Randy. “Hey, you didn’t feel anything when you…?”
Randy ran a hand through his short-cropped hair. “I felt a lot of things. I don’t know.” His stare shifted away from me uncomfortably, his tell that he wasn’t being completely honest. I’d known Randy the longest, and could usually read him like a book. There was something more there, but he wasn’t going to say something now that Travis had joined us.
“You can’t actually believe this chick, right?” he asked me. “The fifth isn’t a girl. It’s not possible. Enforcers are male. They’ve always been male.”
“She said she got the call.”
“Maybe it was actually PMS.”
I wanted to tell him that a woman Norah’s age would probably know the difference, but that just seemed too obvious to share. “Straight to Salem? Straight to us? Come on. Even you’re not that angry to understand there must be something going on here. If not the call, then she was brought to us for a reason. Maybe she needs our help.”
Travis smirked and clapped Randy on the back. “I’m sure this guy gave her all the help she wanted.”
“Fuck you,” Randy snapped.
Surprised, Travis looked at him, his eyes widening ever so slightly. We were all coven members, and friends, that didn’t mean we got along one-hundred percent of the time. Especially lately without having the fifth.
Before Travis blew up again, I motioned toward the furniture in the living room. “Let’s just sit down and figure this out.” I waited until she was sandwiched between Gabe and Randy on the far couch before pushing forward. I’d been known to just spout off questions, bombarding people, and it was Randy who’d told me to look for social cues before rambling off on one of my tangents. When I thought I should talk, I stopped and waited another five seconds before saying anything. “So, you’re from New Orleans?”
Norah took a sip and brought her knees up to her chest. “Yep.”
I waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t. “And you’re a witch?”
“Yep.”
Okay, I clearly sucked at asking these questions.
She looked up at me for the first time and her eyes softened. “I practice voodoo mostly. I inherited powers from my mother’s side.”
Voodoo. Hmm. I made a mental note to look some of that up. I was embarrassed to say I didn’t know much about it. “Are you in trouble?”
Her eyebrows pulled in. “Am I in trouble?”
She looked at Gabe and he hid a smile. My heart picked up. Clearly, I’d offended her, but I had no idea why, and the guys weren’t going to help me, like usual. “Yeah. Do you…need something? We can help you.”
Norah leaned forward, her feet hitting the carpet. Still clutching the mug in her hand, she narrowed her gaze. “Does it look like I’m some sort of damsel in distress to you?”